


On Which We Rebuild

by Methoxyethane



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Developing Friendships, Feelings, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Insecure Lance (Voltron), M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Post-Season/Series 06, Pre-Relationship, Season 06 Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-21
Updated: 2018-06-21
Packaged: 2019-05-26 09:07:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14997524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Methoxyethane/pseuds/Methoxyethane
Summary: In the ruins left by the battle with Lotor, the paladins have to reconstruct their home. Meanwhile, Keith and Lance have an opportunity to reconstruct their friendship. (Also there's a dog.)





	On Which We Rebuild

It would take at least a few months to build a new ship, which made since considering Earth technology was a little behind when it came to flying space castles. Keith didn’t mind. He had been with his mother on the space whale in a place where time didn’t even exist - he had finally managed to pick up some sorely-needed patience.

They had landed in Texas, using the vast desert of the Garrison’s government property as a base to build the massive project. Everyone had flown off to their individual homes at first, desperate to reunite with families after being gone so suddenly for so long, which Keith could hardly begrudge them. What he hadn’t expected was for them to filter BACK so quickly, assuming they’d spend the entire long vacation on Earth taking advantage of it luxuries and appreciating their families.

Keith himself had already spent the first few weeks since they’d reunited attached to Shiro’s side, but neither of them were really clingy people. Shiro had been through a lot and needed rest, and Keith was more than happy to let him recover in Earth’s familiar embrace without crowding his brother and demanding attention.

Pidge’s family was here helping with the ship of course, and Hunk came back after not too long to help with the engineering on the project but… From what Keith knew about him, he honestly hadn’t expected to see Lance again until the new castle was ready to embark.

“It was really crowded,” Lance had shrugged when he reappeared in Texas only weeks later. “In space I got used to all the quiet and… you know. SPACE. I love them and was so glad to be back for a visit, but I felt like I was suffocating.”

It sounded to Keith like an incomplete answer, but he was far away from willing to push it and no one else asked, either. Personally, Keith himself was glad for it. Not because they needed Lance in specific for anything, but just because he had been separated from all his friends for what at least FELT like a really long time, and selfishly wanted all of them around. To Keith, Lance and the others were his _family,_ and he felt like there was so much about everyone he still had to learn.

There were Garrison-Issued quarters on base, a hastily constructed shantytown of shacks and tents for all the workers to stay in during the project. Keith, not being on very good terms with the Garrison, was more comfortable located a few miles away in his old shack with Krolia. He had to make the trip on his hoverbike over to the construction site every morning to actually see everyone, but considering how much time he had just had very alone in a small space with his mother Keith was more than willing to put in the effort.

The trouble was, there wasn’t much for him to do. Every so often the Lions could be useful in the construction but most of the engineering was still on a much smaller scale and Keith was dangerously unequipped to deal with Altean technology.

Fortunately for him, so was Lance. For one thing it was nice not being the only one without anything helpful to contribute, but also just because he’d only had Galra to speak to for so long, he’d found himself craving genuine human interaction he was so bad with. And Lance? Lance was pretty much as human as you got.

They didn’t exactly have long meaningful conversations, but Keith thought they were having fun. Everyone had gotten back into the habit of training as a team every morning again, sans Shiro for obvious PTSD-related reasons. Also he had only one arm, but Keith knew better than to assume that would hold Shiro back from just about anything. Anyway, the point was now he and Lance did extra practice together later, just the two of them training with their bayards in the scorching-sweet Texan sunlight, and by necessity resting together after too.

The water on Earth tasted different than what he’d gotten used to, and it was an odd change. He’d lived on his planet his entire life, and then suddenly he had left and he’d gotten used to the castle, and then the BoM base, and then the.... Temporal whale forest, or whatever. Suddenly coming back after all that, it felt like an eternity had passed, yet somehow also no time at all.

His wolf friend certainly seemed comfortable on Earth, currently digging holes in Keith’s yard while the two humans… Er. Two people he was with sat on the porch to catch their breath.

As far as the days Keith had been counting, two years had passed. But now, actually being home and face to face with one of his friends, Keith wondered exactly how much time it had really been. The memories of being at the Garrison felt like they were at least two years ago, fogged of detail and distant of emotion, but the times he thought of in the castle or in their Lions all still felt so fresh and clear, like it had only been weeks ago and not months and months. Maybe it was because he hadn’t really gotten any new memories to replace them, or maybe it was just a side effect of the strange out-of-time-and-space rift they’d been in, but either way Keith was greatful. He wasn’t sure what he would have done with even more distance between he and the already semi-estranged paladins of Voltron.

Even not counting the time he’d been… outside of time, Keith had been with the Blade of Marmora for months, and it had definitely changed the others while he was gone. Not that he hadn’t changed himself after making peace with Krolia, but where Keith felt better about himself everyone else seemed far more… Well. They’d still been at war while Keith had been practically on vacation in that forest. They were all bound to feel the strain, especially now that they all knew the reason Shiro had been acting so strange was because he wasn’t Shiro at all. Keith had left right when the conflict started, but the other had lived and fought with that fake Shiro for all that time…

And with Lotor. Keith didn’t know exactly what had happened with that mess while he was gone, but Allura’s attitude and the fact that by the end they had to much faith in him they helped put him on the throne only to be betrayed in such a horrendous manner… Everyone seemed like they’d taken some real damage.

It was Lance who was the strangest, though, Keith reflected as he watched the other paladin take a long swig of water out of the corner of his eye. He knew Lance had never liked Lotor at all, and he had been emotional about not noticing the fake Shiro. But considering they had the real one back that couldn’t be the sole cause of his continued… _weirdness_. Instead of vindicated that he was right all along about the prince’s intentions or glad to be back on Earth he was just… Quiet. And he kept spending time with Keith who he’d never even liked instead of Hunk and Pidge, who he had already been friends with in the first place…

He was distracted out of his train of thought when he noticed his cosmic dog bounding past with a dead racoon in his mouth.

“H-hey!” Keith stood up, shouting at his friend. “Put that down, you don’t know where it’s been!” He didn’t know if he’d found it dead already or killed it himself, but either way Keith did NOT want to know what would happen if you introduced rabies to a space wolf.

He was ignored, giant doggy paws kicking up dirt as he danced in circles violently shaking his prize. Yeah, that wasn’t surprising. Communication had never been their strong suit.

Next to him, a voice boomed out a low bark of, “DROP IT!” so loud it startled Keith and his wolf in time, both of them jumping a bit. Lance repeated the command again, a stern and commanding “ _Drop it_ ,” that had the dog sulkily opening his great jaw to let the dead vermin fall out of his mouth.

Keith blinked in wonder, almost surprised the glass didn’t drop straight out of his hand. “How did you do that?!” He asked in bafflement, turning incredulously to the blue (red?) paladin. “You can't teach obedience training to a WOLF! He doesn’t even **know** you why did he just _listen_?”

Lance burst out in a laugh, leaning back on his hands. “Well I’ve never seen a wolf before this guy but I have helped train dogs, all they need is a little discipline. He probably just won’t listen to you because he thinks you’re friends.”

A frown curled Keith’s lips. “We _are_ friends. You make **friends** with wild animals, you don’t try something insane like domesticating a bear.”

“You can still train them,” Lance shrugged. “Haven’t you ever heard of lion tamers and circus bears? We’re not even putting him on a unicycle, I just taught this guy how to sit down.”

A little worried his jaw might be dropping at this point, Keith mumbled, “I spend two years with him and can’t get so much as a fetch, you spend two days with him and he’s sitting on cue. You’re a jerk.”

Lance laughed again, a sound that Keith had grown used to hearing back before Marmora and and had heard far less since his return. “You’re just jealous because I’m good with animals. You think I can milk a cow but don’t even know how to train a dog? It’s like, pure routine and confidence.”

He did have a point about the cow. Still, something about the whole thing felt weird. Sure, he was technically a dog of some kind, but wasn’t he a wild animal who should be allowed to do whatever he wanted? Although, the only thing Lance had made him do so far was good for him anyway… An odd moral dilemma. “What do you mean by discipline?” If there was any smacking on the nose with newspaper Keith was objecting instantly.

“I dunno, like, basic boundaries and routine? Positive reinforcement is more powerful than negative, you’ve just gotta make him look you in the eye and use a firm and clear voice.” He dug a piece of what looked like some kind of kibble or jerky out of his pocket and threw it out towards the wolf, who snapped it up out of the air and swallowed it before his paws even hit the ground again. “I remember Mama said the key to training a dog is to give them discipline, exercise, and affection in that order. So you got two out of three covered, a little work can cover the rest.”

Keith considered that. He’d never needed to control the wolf before, he’d always had good judgement by himself. On the other hand, if Keith could learn ‘Down boy,’ and ‘Stop licking,’ the quality of his life would improve by like ten thousand percent.

He let the silence settle back over them while he tried to decide if it was worth the trouble of asking Lance for help with this. Their relationship had always been really weird, and they were already spending a slightly unnatural amount of time together...

“So does this guy have a name?” Lance suddenly asked, their large furry companion trotting over to sniff his offered hand.

Keith’s face caught in a blush, realizing since he didn’t give him orders ever no one had probably ever heard him actually say it aloud. “Um,” he hesitated, not sure why he was embarrassed. “I’ve been calling him...Chang?”

Lance looked genuinely confused, one eyebrow raised all the way to his hairline. “Does that… mean something in some language you know?”

“No, uh. It’s just the um.” Nevermind, he knew why he was embarrassed and that was because he had to explain himself. “Kind of like… the sound he makes?”

Lance’s eyes turned to Chang, who had wandered off to sit a few yards away. He looked no less baffled. Right. Keith’s bad.

He cleared his throat, raising his voice enough to call, “Come here, bud!”

Long ears perked up, and Chang was leaping up and disappearing into a tiny shock of blue light. He reappeared mid-air directly above Keith, landing on him with with another burst of light that was accompanied by an unmissable ringing sound.

“Oh, _Chang_ ,” Lance said slowly, understanding dawning. “I so get it now, that’s totally what it sounds like!” He chuckled, watching as the wolf licked at enthusiastically at Keith’s face. “Adorable,” he announced absently.

Not sure if he meant the wolf Keith was trying to remove from his face or just his choice in name for him, Keith thought best to ignore the comment.

So after that Lance actively stepped in to help Keith with training Chang, which at least excused all the time they were spending together as being slightly useful and not an effort to waste the day while everyone else had real work to be helpful with. Also, neither of them were alone this way, which Keith suspected to be the real reason they hadn’t abandoned each other's company at the first petty argument.

Speaking of their joint determination to be helpful, they’d wound up going back to the caves where they had first located Blue. The original markings were probably made by humans, but the floor split open to drop them down to a cavern underneath where the Lion had hid and no one had gotten any chance to look around it and like… see how she had gotten there before they all shot off into space.

Keith had asked Krolia to come along, knowing she must have been in the system herself at least once before, but… well, her excuse was that the he and Lance were going to know more about anything Altean they found than she would. Keith was willing to go with that.

So they dropped down into the cave system, he Lance and Chang, on the off-chance they found something that might be useful to the castle reconstruction.

“Man, it’s so weird being here again,” Lance said in wonder, looking around at the waterfall. “I mean, now that I’m not Blue’s pilot anymore. Being in here, it feels like I should be able to talk to her. I think this is like the first time not being able to hear her voice anymore has kinda freaked me out.”

“Tell me about it,” Keith agreed. “Red and I felt like brothers, having to switch to Black was the last thing I had wanted back then. Not that I’d trade back now, but… It’s _Red_.”

Lance smiled at him. “If just watching Allura be better at piloting my old Lion than me wasn’t weird, I bet you actually having to RIDE in Red again must have been ten kinds of a trip.”

Keith nodded, a slight laugh blustering out of him. Red was what they’d used to fly all the way out here from the shack this time since it reduced the time it took via hoverbike from an hour and a half down to four minutes, including the time to get lost and not know where to park. It was the first time he’d been inside since he’d stepped into Black god knows how long ago, and while he could definitely feel Red’s warmth and life while he was in the cockpit it was nothing like the connection he used to feel. It was like, not only was Keith not the same person anymore, but now Red wasn’t even the same Lion as he had been, either.

“It… wasn’t uncomfortable,” Keith decided on after a while. “It just felt like Red was yours now and not mine.”

Lance didn’t say anything to that, a silence which made Keith glance over to see him frowning. “Mine, huh? Guess that means there’s no hoping for you to take him back when Shiro gets better, then.”

“Shiro’s not fighting anymore.” Keith answer was instant and absolute. “I wouldn’t give him Black back even if he begged; I’m not letting him die a third time on me. Dying once is one thing, but if you die _twice_ you stay the HELL off the battlefield.”

Lance burst out laughing, shaking his head at Keith’s determination and sighing “Ah, guess we’re stuck with me still piloting Red, then.”

Gears clicked in Keith’s head, rapidly growing concerned at Lance’s attitude. If there had been an opportunity to say something he missed it, because Chang barked and when they turned around to see what it was at all they saw was a scatter of blue light and…. Nothing. No bell sound, no reappearing wolf. He had teleported off to a different goddamned section of the cavern.

“Oh son of a bitch!” Lance scratched the back of his head. “Is he gonna come back on his own, or…?”

“Probably…” Keith reasoned. “...In a few hours, I’d guess.”

“...We gotta go look for the space dog don’t we?”

They did. But they were also supposed to wander off exploring anyway, so they might as well make an effort to bring Chang back with them when they left.

Blue had been hidden for ten thousand years, which was more than enough time for humans to have already been on Earth to find her. Considering Keith had known about the Lion in the first place due to old legends from the area it was likely people had indeed found the weapon, and being unable to break through her barrier simply worshipped her as a god. Why exactly… had she woken up when she did? Was it just for Lance? But then, why had she given him up to Red and let in Allura whom she’d already met before…

That brought to mind the conversation that had been interrupted earlier. That comment… was Lance trying to give Red up? So he could stay home with his family?

The very thought made Keith’s face twist into a frown, not liking the idea of being seperated from any of his few friends after he’d just gotten them back. Not knowing how else to address the problem, while they stumbled around blindly in a cave Keith practically shouted, “W-well, I think we’re better off with you in Red, anyway.”

Lance couldn’t have looked more confused than if Keith had declared he was running for mayor. “Thatsawhatnow?”

Keith paused to slide down a steep rocky bluff he almost hadn’t noticed, waiting for Lance to jump down and meet him. “Well I guess I mean… Like for me, piloting Black takes a lot more control where Red was pure reflex and intuition. And it turns out not just letting myself go with the flow and needing to put in that extra focus has made me a better pilot, and I’m pretty sure that, uh. From what I saw, you had that same problem where you had to relearn to fly from scratch, which means you ended up with better control over Red than I ever had.”

When he finally looked over at Lance, the other paladin’s jaw was agape and his face has started up in a blush. “You seriously think that?”

Keith felt out the wall in front of them with his hands, fairly certain he’d seen an opening but not sure where it started. “I think that Red must have picked you and rejected Allura for a reason. I think that I wasn’t living up to my potential until Black forced me to better myself, and I think the person who’s supposed to be at my right hand is you. So, you know. Yeah?”

And, just in case his point hadn’t gotten across and Lance was still thinking of staying behind on Earth, he finished with: “Your family may need you at home, but the universe needs you in Voltron even more.”

Ah found it - his fingers dipped into a crack, splitting open at the bottom to make a hole into the next part of the caves. Lance’s silence wasn’t really suprising or concerning, so he ducked down to try and peek his head into the other side of the hole to check if it was worth the effort of crawling through.

Giant gold eyes stared back at him, and with a glimmer of light and the ring of space being rent, a hundred pounds of wolf was landing cheerfully on Keith’s face. Because Lance was, at heart, still an asshole, he laughed so hard he fell in a puddle.

They didn’t find anything in the end, but as they climbed back into the sunlight a few hours later Keith still considered it a day well-spent.

“You know,” Lance started out with a stretch, Chang bounding in enthusiastic circles around his legs. “While you were gone, I didn’t think I missed you at all. But now that you’re back I realize how much it kind of sucked not having you around.”

It was Keith’s turn to be stunned into silence, having assumed Lance would have been more relaxed than ever in his absence. Then again, even though Lance had always been far from his favorite shipmate there was a certain kind of energy in their interactions that nothing from his time in the Blade came close to…

“Yeah,” Keith ended up agreeing. “I think I really missed you, too, Lance. Life’s a lot more fun with you around constantly stirring shit up.”

Another light laugh from Lance. “Says the guy who solves all his problems with a giant knife!”

Chang popped in out of nowhere to tackle an affectionate headbutt into Lance’s ribcage, and Lance proved that humans bounced when they hit the ground. It was Keith’s turn to laugh.

After that, things seemed to get even easier and more casual between them. Keith still couldn’t get his own dog to listen to him even as he grew increasingly obedient to both Krolia and goddamned _Lance_ , but he’d at least mastered the ever-vital ‘Drop it,’ which was a necessity now that they were out of the magic forest and surrounded by things he needed NOT to chew on like delicate Altean technology. He swore to god if he found out Lance taught that little traitor how to fetch Keith was tearing his own hair out.

And yet, the more time they spent together, for as natural as it felt Keith couldn’t dismiss that there was something weird about it. Lance was so social and outgoing, and Keith was someone he only barely had things in common with. If he was just going to spend their time on Earth relaxing anyway, why wasn’t he doing it with his family or best friends?

A few weeks had already passed in this pattern, and Keith didn’t say anything. Until they were playing a game they called Stealth Training that was actually more like desert hide-and-seek with Chang, but since he was a cosmic teleporting space monster he had an advantage on them that really did result in a lot of being caught and tackled to the ground all day.

Keith found a good hiding spot about twenty feet up a sharp sandstone rock, perfect not because he was out of sight but because from here Lance and Chang weren’t either. He could keep an eye on them and move once he was on anyone’s radar, and hopefully the height advantage should be enough of a boon to give him a head start.

Chang was stalking Lance as he ran for cover, sliding down into a valley to try and ditch him long enough for Chang to lose his scent. Keith watched the flashes of light bursting closer and closer to Lance’s location in zig-zag patterns, and then turned his eyes back to Lance himself who was… frowning at his phone?

He was answering it with a forced smile, looking at the video on his screen to greet whoever was on the other side with something that at least loosely resembled cheer. The call preoccupied his focus completely because Chang was warping in close enough to tackle him in a pounce, and Lance barely even glanced at the great wolf as he appeared mid-air before him and… Stopped dead, ears flattening out from playful joy to protective concern in a mere second.

Chang sat down at Lance’s feet as the other paladin paced in small circles, and Keith climbed down from his bird’s nest to investigate what had gone so wrong as to stop the game. When it came to the wolf, Keith would never have been able to stop Chang by doing anything short of arming himself for attack stance, if he’d only been talking on the phone Keith would have gotten plowed right through.

It took a couple minutes to hike over to his companions, and by the time he approached hearing range he could already pick up the strain in Lance’s voice. “No I swear Mom I’ll come back and visit again in time for the party next month, I’ve just been super busy helping with the reconstruction! Yeah, of course I’m helping, I lived in the castle for like two years why wouldn’t I be helpful? In fact, look, I’m in the middle of something right now, I can’t - Yeah, Mama, I’ll remember to bring a present for Nessa’s graduation, but-” Lance swung the phone away from his face to let his face pinch into a frustrated scowl without being seen, wiping the look off by the time he was looking at his mother again. “Oh look, Keith’s here, love you Mom, bye!”

Keith had an eyebrow already raised for him by the time Lance was ready to look up, one hand resting on his hip while he asked, “I thought you were the one who LIKED your family.”

Lance looked dramatically pained, waving one hand in front of his face with a too-loud “That was nothing, I get along great with them! I totally love my family, man, I just forgot how Mom can be sometimes.”

Keith’s mouth twisted thoughtfully. His instinct said to leave the whole thing alone, but he was trying to be better than his habits now. He wanted to get to know Lance, learn about all of his friends and the things that are hard for them. So he pushed forward, and with a tentative lick to his lips Keith asked, “So… then why aren’t you with your family right now? We’d all understand if you needed to stay with them right now, even Hunk’s been flying off to visit his practically every other day.”

Lance took a deep breath and then a deep sigh, letting the air out of his lungs in a slow drain. “I just… it’s just weird now, is all. Including the time in the Garrison I left home five years ago… everything is really different than it used to be.”

Keith and Chang exchanged glances, and then Keith dropped to sit on the ground next to the wolf under the shady side of the hill. He reclined to look back up at Lance expectantly, who caught on and plopped down with a resigned little huff.

He gave Lance the time he needed to finally start speaking. “Like… we were in a **war** , Keith. I shot Galra soldiers, I blew up entire battleships and took thousands of lives in _seconds_.” He took another deep shuddering breath, exhaling it weakly. “I got shot. I got blown up, and beaten down, and electrocuted, and for about three minutes Allura was sure I was flat-out _dead_.” His left hand came up to his forehead while his head bowed down, eyes hidden by his hand while he pinched at his temples. “I fucking _died in combat,_ and my family doesn’t… they have no comprehension. They go on about what happened in their lives while I was gone, and I wanna care so badly I really do but…”

He sat up so he could flail, his hands gesturing dramatically as he groaned, “But Marco failing one class doesn’t put his life in jeopardy, and Valerie’s cheating ex-boyfriend never tried to commit genocide, for fuck’s sake! They treat me like I’m, like the same as them, like I’m the same as I USED to be, like I’m still a fifteen year old jerk-off bragging about how I’m gonna be a hero and not an actual goddamned veteran of an ongoing war! I don’t even know how to act anymore, they all believe my stories about being in space but I didn’t - I couldn’t tell them anything about how bad it really is, because I’d rather they not take me seriously than worry about how close I come to dying every day!”

There was… absolutely no way Keith could understand what Lance was going through. But he knew it was good for Lance to get it out anyway, so he nodded along and agreed, “Even if you did tell the whole truth, there’s no way they’d understand without actually being there. They haven’t seen the fucked up things we’ve seen, and they may have seen the Lion but that’s a whole world away from watching you fight in it and understanding how amazing you really are.”

Lance closed his eyes, breathing out something that sounded like it wanted to be a scoff but didn’t have the energy. Chang scooted to lay down next to Lance, laying his huge furry head in the paladin’s lap and staring up at him with sympathetic puppy eyes.

Lance let himself chuckle a little, dropping a hand down to Chang’s forehead to start petting him. “Yeah, sure,” he said flatly with a one-shoulder shrug. “I just wish I’d been able to stay in contact these last two years, if only for the sake of making seeing them all easier. Everyone crowds around wanting to trade stories and catch up because they all thought I was dead and they’re glad I’m alive and I love them all so much, but… God, it’s too much to all be in a room with at once. I always tried to be the center of attention as a kid, but now I just wish things were back to normal.”

Keith nodded, watching Lance scratch at Chang’s ears. They’d stayed out long enough for the sun to be getting low, bright orange light highlighting a glow across his face that suited his warm skintone. Lance had gotten darker in the last few weeks, the desert sun deepening a natural tan that had worn pale in the artificial lighting of space. It looked good on him.

In fact, Keith realized as he let himself really look at Lance’s features, a lot of him looked good. Keith may have changed in his time on the whale but all of them had been changed by their time off Earth, and Lance was visibly different from the skinny highschool kid that had first stepped into the Blue Lion. His body had grown, his jawline had sharpened out of the last traces of baby fat, and his eyes held a tired maturity that was familiar in the castle and warzones of space but all but unknown to the peaceful lives lived by the people of Earth.

Yeah, Keith could understand why going home would be hard. Lance would never be able to be the same person he used to be, and as of right now no one understood who the real Lance even _was_.

“Well,” Keith offered after a while. “If you have to go back in a couple weeks, have you thought about bringing someone with you? Not being alone might be a good distraction to take the heat off.”

Lance smiled, and it was absolutely pitiful. “Who would I even bring? Hunk? He’d try to lighten up the mood by turning every story into a joke at my expense.”

It was Keith’s turn to level a frown. He knew Lance was the butt of jokes just as often as Keith himself was, but had it really gotten so bad that Lance didn’t even want to take his own best friend home to meet his parents…

“Are-” he stopped, swallowed. “Did you and he get into some kind of fight?”

Lance blinked over at Keith, half surprised. “Is that what it looks like?” He shook his head. “No, we didn’t, he just… I’m stupid and he’s got better things to deal with, that’s all. Lots of work with the reconstruction, you know?”

That didn’t sound good. “If it’s just for a day or two, might be able to get Pidge to go.” Well, he supposed she was busy too, and Lance’s face didn’t light up at all. Let’s see, Shiro still wasn’t cleared for that much stress and Coran was the head of the project and couldn’t be pried from the castle… “Or Allura, I noticed she’s been a lot more open with you lately.”

An intense pain shattered Lance’s face, a second of wretched despair before he put himself back together with a self-deprecating scoff. “Ah, yeah, no thanks, we’re not that close. She might agree to come if she knew I needed it, but then I’d have to field all the comments about bringing an alien girlfriend home, and having to explain she’s not fifty thousand times sounds like a special kind of torture.”

That sounded true, but also sounded like he hadn’t really gotten as close to Allura as their more casual atmosphere made it look. So strange, Keith couldn’t even imagine a Lance that wasn’t constantly filled with energy and surrounded by people.

Okay, this Keith REALLY didn’t like. He watched as Chang stuck his tongue out to lick at Lance’s fingers, and decided that if Lance wasn’t talking to any of his friends OR his family that meant Keith was the only one left to notice that Lance… Keith wasn’t even sure what was going on. That Lance needed support, he supposed.

“Lance… what’s been going on since I was gone?” He didn’t bother hiding the genuine worry in his tone. “Did you spend that entire time by yourself or something?”

Lance gave him a weak smile and shrugged. “More or less, yeah. But didn’t you, too?”

The first months, maybe. And those first months had been practically torture. But then Keith had spent two years(ish) with his mother and finally accepted he was a person who was worthy of love, while Lance… What the fuck HAD happened to Lance? And for that matter, what did he mean when he said he’d died anyway?

“Does it…” Keith ventured, because he couldn’t think of any other variables. “Does this have anything to do with Lotor?”

Somehow, Lance looked like he wanted to laugh and cry at the same time that a cold expressionless settled over his face that made him appear to feel nothing at all. The mood it set was so bitter Keith swore he could taste the bile rising up in his own mouth just from looking at him. “As much as I would love to never think about this again, I know for a fact Hunk and Pidge will use it against me again next time I try to express an opinion, so you might as well have the whole backstory.”

Not knowing what the hell that meant, Keith had no choice but to wait and listen as Lance took in a deep readying breath.

“So everyone knows by now I’ve got a little bit of a thing for Allura,” he started quickly, a determination to his storytelling. “Which wasn’t really a problem for anyone until Lotor showed up and swept her off her feet, and I was the only one who didn’t trust him. Everyone brushed me off as being jealous because that was also true, but then it got worse and worse because Allura and Emperor Murderface really DID get so close that I know she totally legitimately fell for him, like, she thought he was her fucking fairytale _prince_. And I felt like shit because I got passed over so easily for Zarkon’s own fucking son when a year ago she spat at the very sight of all Galra, and any time I had anything to say or like,” a throttling gesture, “Even stopped to freakin’ be SAD for five minutes Team Punk-Ass-Bitches would jump on my ass for moping about Allura and Lotor, making fun of me instead of so much as a single, ‘That sucks buddy I know you liked her!’”

Keith just blinked, way over processed with new and terrible information. “Jesus christ,” was his helpful addition.

All of the built up tension seemed to drain out of Lance at once, and he fell back against the sandy hill with a garbled curse of frustration. “And then? The worst part? When it was all over she came to _me_.” A deep swallow, and Keith watched him throw one arm over his eyes. “Lotor betrayed her and she came to me, and she cried in my arms. The first girl I’ve ever had real feelings for, and she cried to me over another man, and I had to hold her and tell her that trusting him wasn’t the wrong thing to do.” His voice was growing more strained with every word, the last sentence so thin and weak he practically choked on it. “I don’t think anything has ever hurt so bad in my life.”

Keith’s heart fell into his stomach just watching him, and he found himself so so _angry_ at Allura. She could have gone to anyone, there was no way she hadn’t known about Lance’s feelings, but it was his arms she’d gone to for comfort? Why? She couldn’t get support from Pidge or Hunk or Coran who was like her own family, instead she had put that burden on Lance and it just wasn’t _fair_.

“You really love her,” Keith stated simply. Just saying it kind of felt like it was breaking his own heart, wishing Lance’s first love wasn’t so cruel it was making him feel wretched and inadequate instead of appreciating and loving the amazingly _kind_ person Lance actually was.

“I don’t even know,” Lance admitted, held-in tears cracking his voice. “But whatever this is I wanna get over it, because it’s making me feel like absolute shit.”

Keith’s heart ached for the sake of his friend, and he did the only thing he could think of; the same thing that Chang did. They scooted closer to Lance, sitting on either side of him to make a sandwich of well-meaning light physical contact. He didn’t know what it was like to fall in this kind of romantic love, but he knew what it was like for everyone to tell him to give up on Shiro and just accept he was dead. In a way, was that really asking for anything different? It was still letting love go. And in the end, Keith hadn’t had to get over his.

“Yeah, uh,” Keith coughed awkwardly after a few minutes. “Not inviting her to meet your family is probably a good call, then.”

Lance laughed, sudden and genuine and only slightly miserable. He rocked himself into sitting upright again, patting Keith on the back and sighing out the last of the tears he’d never actually shed. “Yep. And since I never admitted to my friends I have real human emotions, they’re still making fun of my ‘boner for the princess distracting me.’” A long annoyed groan as Lance threw back his head. “Annnndddnd now the only person I DO tell is Keith freakin’ Kogane, god I’m pathetic! At least the mice can’t pity me.”

“You’re not.” Keith insisted seriously. “Kolivan and Shiro and everyone in my life has told me how much I let my emotions get the best of me, so there’s no way you’re pathetic when your feelings never made you -” Go back and fuck up an entire mission bc Shiro might have exploded? Hm. Try again. “They’re not something you need to be ashamed of, Lance. Everyone else might tell you that it’s holding you back, but I think your passion is one of the best things about you.”

They were finally looking each other eye-to-eye for the first time in the entire conversation, and Lance was searching his gaze with a focused frown. “You can’t lie for crap. That means you really mean that, Keith.”

“Well, yeah.” Keith said, wearing a clumsy smile. “We’re friends? And I care about you?”

Lance snorted, breaking eye contact to look off into barely-setting sun. “And to think, I was just playing with the dog to avoid Allura. I’m glad we started hanging out, Keith.”

That, Keith decided, was probably just as good as admitting he cared about Keith, too.

They wandered back to Red not long after, ready to fly back out of the desert they were playing in to go their separate ways.

Before they did part, Keith turned to Lance and finally asked, “So, what if _I_ went home with you for the party?””

“...I think my family would fucking love you,” Lance said back.

Yeah, that sounded like a confirmed plan. “I’m bringing Chang with.”

Keith decided, in the next moment, that he really enjoyed the sound of Lance’s laugh.

Over the next week Keith tried to be extra observant of Lance’s interactions with the others. They still all met every morning for team bonding/status updates, and it was becoming clear that the reason no one had noticed how depressed Lance was was because he was actively hiding it. Son of a bitch, Keith’s time away from the team had only made him worse with social interaction and not better, he wished he had any idea whatsoever on what might help Lance. The others did seem to still respect him, Allura now more than ever, but… It just didn’t feel like anyone was actually _friends_ anymore. As a team their harmony on the battlefield was more refined than ever, but once they stepped off everyone just… seperated. It didn’t seem right.

Time, he decided. They all needed time right now. He would help distract Lance to get over his crush on Allura, and then Allura and Lance could be real friends finally, and then all Keith would need to do is pull Hunk and Pidge out of the science vortex they were sucked into to remind them they also needed to be human beings and express emotions other than tiredness and sarcasm and then they could start all freaking over on the team bonding and everything would be fine. Keith didn’t know HOW it would be fine, but he was the Black Paladin now damn it and he was going to bring this team together.

The castle was far enough on it’s way now that Lance and Keith actually did have value on the project, having reached the stage where they were making plans to adapt the new layout to meet the needs and comforts of humans. Keith was still doing what amounted to heavy lifting but Lance had basically been put in charge of the adaptation part, basic things like furniture and amenities that were simply easier to acquire from Earth than try to build from scratch now all falling under his list of responsibilities.

Was Lance offended that he was basically put in charge of the shopping list? Not in the least bit. He was absolutely delighted in fact, because he claimed to have more style and taste than all of Voltron put together and was prepared to put his heart into making their new home not just functional, but fucking FABULOUS.

Keith’s only concern was the fact that now that he and Lance weren’t goofing off with the dog, there was nothing separating Lance from Allura. Which, now that Keith knew Lance was trying to get over his feelings for her, was probably not an ideal situation. How were you supposed to get over a crush who was being nicer and more considerate to you than ever? How do you stop liking someone when you’re still with them every single day?

Keith may not know, but he was determined to at least TRY and help. Fortunately, friends or not Keith and Lance still had a special talent for riling each other up, and Lance was easily distracted by anything that sounded even remotely like a challenge, so he was pretty sure he had a handle on this. Keith couldn’t change anything between Lance and Allura, he knew, but he could at least try to help in any stupid way he could. Even if the only way he could help was just by keeping them from being alone with each other.

Which, on that very note, Allura was currently approaching Lance again and Keith may or may not have found an excuse to skulk over there and listen in. A decision he turned out not to regret, because the princess was bringing up to Lance the subject of everyone’s new sleeping quarters and how they would need to be filled with beds, and Keith could already picture in his mind a queen sized bed filled with Lance and Allura giggling side by side as soon as the words “Mattress shopping,” exited her mouth.

Oh, HELL no. “I’ll go with, too,” Keith interjected, whipping Allura and Lance’s heads around to notice he was there at all. “I, uh,” he tried to justify, because they looked rightly confused. “I’ve been sleeping on a cave ground for two years and shitty cots before that, I wanna… pick out my own bed?”

The exact way Lance snorted a laugh and smiled affectionately at Keith told him he’d been seen right through, but Allura was shrugging in agreement so clearly he was letting him get away with the excuse. “Hell yeah, buddy, let’s get you something FANCY.”

Keith had never been to a mattress store before, but it was exactly as he had imagined - an array of bare beds ready for testing, all sizes and prices and types a person could imagine all in one great big showroom-style floor.

“SO,” Lance started excitedly as the three of them stepped in. “We’re gonna need like, eight really nice beds to spoil all of us paladins and Coran…”

“And Shiro,” Keith interjected.

“- And Shiro yeah that’s why I said eight,” Lance agreed. “‘Cause the last one goes to Miss Romelle and then we get a whole bunch of cheaper single beds for guests, and of course some queen size mattresses… Is nine too many nice beds? We should get at least nine I almost forgot about Krolia.”

“Romelle will want to return to her people eventually, and I believe Krolia still has work with the Blades. I’m afraid Altean technology can no longer be used to barter, so we’ll have to stick to at least some kind of a budget,” Allura dismissed with a touch of regret, idly running her fingers over one of the display mattresses. “But I will admit Keith does have a point about those of us taking permanent residence being afforded a luxurious sleep. It could be argued we’d be much better rested for battle this way.”

“Hell yeah, Keith!” Lance declared, elbowing him in the side in a manner that he assumed was supposed to be companionable. “Let’s start testing these babies out, guys, everybody lay down and pick the one you never wanna get out of!”

And if in that process it ended up being Keith and Lance who scrambled into a play fight in the name of ‘testing the durability’ of a queen size while Allura rolled her eyes good-naturedly at them, well as long as they got the job done who really cared?

Keith had very easily never had a more fun time shopping, and that included the intergalactic space mall they’d had to escape on a flying cow.

Anyway, whether or not he was being helpful and whether or not he was being obvious about it, Keith was starting to think just the fact that he was trying was enough support for Lance. He seemed better, anyway, and maybe the answer all along had been so simple as that he’d just needed a friend who he could count on to actually listen to him.

Keith had nearly forgotten that he’d agreed to go with Lance to see his family until the weekend was already on top of them. And then suddenly they were in Red flying to Cuba, and the Lions made Earth distance something of a joke so once again it was just a matter of finding a safe place to land, and then uh… both of them just kind of sat nervously in the cockpit for another few minutes because Lance’s family was huge and intimidating and Keith’s spanish was probably both insufficient in skill and also not the right kind.

“I, uh,” Lance started awkwardly, turning around to look at Keith but not actually getting out of his seat yet. “So I mean. Thank you, Keith. It’s… It was really awesome of you to come with me for this. Means a lot to me.”

A slight smile curled across Keith’s face, and he nodded. “Don’t worry about it. It was about my turn to be someone else’s backup, right?”

Lance’s face was, if anything, even more serious than when he started. “No, I mean…” He scratched at the back of his head, dropping his eyes to the floor. “Like, we can say we’re friends and it may be true now, but… It doesn’t change the part where for most of our relationship I was kind of a dick. You don’t even have any reason to like me but you’ve been so cool, and I’ve only got like barely enough dignity to actually apologize, so… I’m sorry, man.”

Keith wasn’t sure what to say, caught off guard by the sudden outburst of sincerity. “I…” he started slowly, his own gaze darting away to catch Chang’s curious gaze as the wolf waited patiently for them. “I just wanted to know why you hated me,” he said in a voice that embarrassed him for how much emotion it betrayed.

Lance made a distressed sort of noise, apologizing again. “God, I’m sorry, it wasn’t even… It wasn’t even you I really hated. I hated the fact that you’re better than me, and because you had that cold attitude I felt like I was justified in taking that out on you, and… In retrospect, I said a lot of things you didn’t deserve.”

He couldn’t quite identify the feeling Lance’s words brought on, didn’t even know if it was good or bad. Keith just knew his chest felt tight and his gut felt heavy and all of the memories of all the petty arguments were making his head dizzy, and… He had always just brushed it off and shoved it down with everything else, and Keith never realized how painful Lance’s rejection had really been. “I’ve… I’ve never had any friends before this, you know? It… When I tried to reach out to you and you just brushed me off and went on acting like I was a thorn in your side no matter how many months or how many times we worked together… It really hurt,” he finally admitted, strained and quietly earnest in the near-silent cockpit.

Lance sighed, deep and low and heavy with guilt. “I never considered that then, I never even wanted to admit you had your own feelings and problems. To me, you were… you weren’t a teammate or your own person, you were a representation of every thing about me that isn’t good enough, and everything I did was out of petty jealousy. The fact that you managed to move past my selfishness to forgive me and genuinely care about my feelings when I never would have done the same for you…”

“Yeah, you would, though,” Keith spoke up, surprising Lance. “You’re doing it right now, you’re caring enough about my feelings to apologize for being so shitty.”

Lance blinked in surprise, then smiled, sweet and sad. “And you’re doing it right now too, forgiving me when I haven’t even earned it yet.” He shook his head a little bit, and when he moved Keith was surprised to see that it wasn’t to stand up but to reach out and take one of Keith’s hands in his. “I am going to make it up to you though, Keith. You have friends now, and I’ll make sure you never forget that and think you’re alone again.”

A shiver ran down Keith’s spine, bringing with it a bloom of warmth that slowly grew out to spread from his stomach out towards all his toes, reaching his face last to light him up in a blush. Nonetheless, he wound Lance’s fingers through his own, accepting Lance’s hand with a hesitant, “Yeah? Never again huh?”

Lance nodded, granting Keith a smile so charming and honest Keith would have believed it if Lance had told him he’d stolen the moon straight out of the sky. “Yeah Keith, you’ll never be alone again. I promise.”

Before now, a promise like that would have felt shallow and empty, leading Keith to wonder if anything Lance had said at all today was genuine. But as of right in that moment no such pessimism took over his perception, and Keith decided that both of them had grown up enough now to find the words reassuring instead. He still probably wouldn't be able to keep such a lofty promise, but... Keith was no longer too scared to let them both try.

(Incidentally, instead of minding that Keith brought a space wolf with him, Lance's family was more concerned that Lance had brought home such a fine young man without telling his folks he was dating anyone first.)

**Author's Note:**

> I picked the name Chang because all the Garrison staff and Kaltenecker are named after the production and animation team, and Steve Ahn Chang was the only name i could remember form the credits that wasn't already being used. Also, it's cute.


End file.
